(CNN) –– Loretta Lynn, whose gritty lyrics and vibrant voice made her the queen of country music for seven decades, has died at age 90.
Lynn’s family told CNN in a statement that the artist died Tuesday at her home in Tennessee.
“Our dear mother, Loretta Lynn , passed away peacefully this morning, October 4, in his sleep at his beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” the statement read. Their relatives have privacy as they grieve and said a “memorial service will be announced later”.
Lynn, who had no formal musical training but spent hours every day singing to her babies to put them to sleep, she was known for churning out highly textured songs in a matter of minutes. She simply wrote down what she knew.
She lived in poverty for much of her youth, started having children at age 17 and spent many years married to a man prone to drink and the amorous adventures. All of that became material for her honest songs. Lynn’s life was rich in experiences that most of the country stars of the time did not have for themselves, but that their followers did know intimately.
“So when I sing those country songs about women struggling to keep things going, you could say I’ve been there,” she wrote in her first autobiography, Coal Miner’s Daughter. “Like I say, I know what it’s like to be pregnant and nervous and poor.”
Lynn had big hits with songs like “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”, which topped the country charts in 1966 and led to her becoming the first woman in country to write a number one hit.
Their songs told family stories, criticized bad husbands and pitied women, wives and mothers around the world. His style of telling it like it is got songs like “Rated X” and “The Pill” banned from radio, even as they became beloved classics.
“I wasn’t the first woman in country music,” Lynn told Esquire magazine in 2007. “I was just the first one to stand up there and speak my mind, of what life was about.”
